Chapter 1316 Wake Up

Chapter 1316 Wake Up

The young Kong Meng bowed to an altar representing Heaven and Earth before bowing to his teacher, Master Shang. He did serve the latter tea, concluding the master-disciple relationship. Master Sheng nodded in satisfaction, while Kong Meng had a wide grin.

"So, master, what are you going to teach me?"

Master Shang did not mean the latter's slightly impetuous actions. On the contrary, he had always admired the boy's desire to pursue knowledge. 'I must ensure he's not led astray by the cultivation world and starts to pursue power instead of knowledge,' Master Shang reminded himself.

"Let's start with a brief history of our school," Master Shang uttered. "My master was a young scholar named Cang Yu. He was an upright and righteous man, loved by the people and the king. Unfortunately, officialdom is cruel; no one could not tolerate my master's 'rigid' views and conduct. So, countless ministers worked together to frame him.'

Kong Meng had a look of indignation. How could these people do such a thing to a righteous scholar? Is the world so cruel? No, Kong Meng had seen the world's cruelty, but he thought this resulted from poverty in this small town. He thought a place like the dynasty's capital would be a bright place full of sages and men worthy of respect.

Master Shang noticed his apprentice's emotional fluctuations. Truthfully, he told him their school's origin to eliminate this young boy's naivety. He even plans to take him around the world to truly experience the darkness of the world. Of course, he'll also show him the light.

"As I said, the king loved my master," Master Shang continued. "So, he secretly let him escape. The master was blessed by fate and soon had a fortunate encounter and started his cultivation journey. He retreated for decades, hoping to return to the dynasty with newfound strength and rectify his name."

"As he should, Kong Meng nodded with a clenched fist.

"Unfortunately, by the time he returned, the king had fallen, and the dynasty had already collapsed with countless warlords fighting for powers. The master wanted to support the remains of the royal family to re-establish the dynasty, but another competing group had already massacred them."

Master Shang sipped his tea, taking this moment to allow his young apprentice to digest his words.

"The master felt lost, so he returned to the cultivation world. However, that side was also not peaceful. The human race and the Myriad Emperor World as a whole had suffered tremendously at the hands of the Devil Race, leaving the Cultivation World full of hatred, resentment, and cruelty.

"The master grew ambitious, wishing to use the Literary Way's ideas of rule, etiquette, righteousness, and respect to establish peace throughout the world." Master Shang secretly shook his head. His master's ambitions were too grand. In fact, he was extremely conservative with his words. His master directly wanted the Literary Way to dominate the world, even overwhelming Taoism, the Sword Path, and many other schools of thought.

"Sadly, his talent could not bear his ambitions. He died during his Supreme Realm Tribulation."

"Master, don't worry. I promise to fulfill the grand teacher's ambitions," Kong Meng promised.

...

Emperor Kong woke up from his memories and sighed. In his life, he has felt powerless four times. The first time was when he first met his wife and accidentally injured her. He tried to apologize, but she was not having it, making him feel powerless. The second time was after entering the Saint Realm. He became arrogant and tried to use Righteous Qi to purify the Blood Earth. His action resulted in an accident that almost eradicated Master Shang. He took action and nourished the latter's spirit with his law, even cracking his Dao Tree in the process. Many historians say that Emperor Kong was not talented enough, so he needed Heavenly Dao's help to give him the final push to become an Eternal.

But that was not the complete truth. The truth is that Emperor Kong's foundation was injured after he cracked his Dao Tree to prevent Master Shang from dying. Although he later did everything he could to fix it, his foundation was always imperfect and thus needed the extra boost. He only completely fixed the problem after experiencing Dao Re-establishment.

'The third time I felt this powerless was when Bai Han started hating me due to miscommunication, and the fourth time was today,' Emperor Kong thought. He suddenly felt outraged.

Boom!

His right hand crushed the table next to him, creating a small black hole in the process. His aura was grand and agitating, making the room tremble under his pressure.

"Master!"

"Hmm?" Emperor Kong finally noticed his two new favorite disciples were in the room. He sighed: "I'm sorry you had to see me like this."

"What exactly happened with your conversation with Wang Wei to have you so riled up?" Lin Fan asked.

"Nothing to be concerned about. Don't worry about it," Emperor Kong replied. Lin Fan could tell something was wrong but also detected that it may not be wise to talk about this now. Meanwhile, Xu Shi frowned. She had seen this kind of look countless times before.

The anger and frustration of having your pride and arrogance trampled on, the subtle fear mixed with respect and reverence, followed by envy and jealousy — she'd seen countless times in the Heavenly Court.

She sighed: "Master, the last thing you can do right now is to let Wang Wei's rhythm affect you."

Emperor Kong looked at her.

"I've seen him doing it countless times. He'll use his words to beat you down, suppress your arrogance, and corner you until you agree with him or he destroys you.

"The trick to his methods is the mindset and rhythm. He has conditioned your mind to work in a certain way, making you overlook things and, more importantly, make you predictable. What you need to do now is break the mold he placed you in.

"Replay your conversation from a bystander standpoint. Analyze every word, action, micro expression, intonation, and even the way he breathes. Analyze everything to see if you miss something and break away from the shackles he placed in your mind."